So Condoleeza Rice has decided not to speak at Rutgers commencement for $35,000. The schools board of governors refused to rescind the invitation even though it had met with protests already and others were planned if she spoke. Some might consider free speech trampled on in this scenario but I see it at work. The invitation was not rescinded and the board stood by it and those opposed made their stance known as well. And God knows, not being paid $35,000 for an hours speech, if that long, doesnt seem like someones free speech is being violated to me. Indeed, Rice exercised her free speech by helping lie us into a war by invoking the spectre of mushroom clouds to instill even more fear in the country as she and the Bush War Council manipulated the intelligence and for geopolitical reasons refocused the countrys ire in the aftermath of 9/11 for its administrations own purposes, not the countrys. Some give Rice a pass because of her gender and ethnicity and because some consider her the female Ken Mehlman, but I dont. Her official hands were as bloody in the Bushs catastrophic war policy as any others, one that cost us so dearly in American lives and broke our budgets even as they attempted to pay for most of it by putting it off-budget, another dishonest part of their legacy. I have a hard time working up any sympathy for Rice being out 35,000 bucks. My sympathy rests with the young girls and women in Iraq who are seeing their rights trampled on - those are the rights, along with those of LGBT people in Iraq, that concern me more than Rices right to inflate her bank account with speeches because of serving in such an administration. Below is a real part of her legacy now playing out in the country she did so much to help liberate.
Posted on: Sat, 03 May 2014 17:10:38 +0000
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